Parliamentary system will prevent future People Power or Coups... NOT!

It did not prevent "people power" attempts against corrupt and cheating governments in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, and they all have Parliamentary gov'ts.

People from thailand too tried to oust Thai Prime Minister Thaksin via "People power" kahit na may parliamentary gov't sila. But still Thaksin remains in power. And now, thailand is experiencing a coup.

Money quote from Jon Mariano:

In a slant to this issue applicable to the Philippines is that Thailand is using the Parliamentary form of government. How come they still have leadership problems? Once more, this is proof that a constitutional change in the Philippines is no magic bullet that will solve our national problems.

Whoever is fighting tooth and nail for this cha-cha movement to succeed is selling us a bottle of snake oil. Sold like a panacea to all ills, but really just another con.

UPDATE: Japan, Australia and New Zealand strongly denounced the coup in Thailand.

The US response?

"It's really too early to form any hardened judgments," Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told The Associated Press in Washington. U.S. State Department said officials "are monitoring the situation with concern."

And I also hope the US would not quickly form any hardened judgments in our situation if there's a people power attempt to against arroyo.

UPDATE: From Ducky Paredes from Aug 15, 2006:

Mr. John says: "Charter change is a good thing. You can change presidents without a revolution." Yes, that would be a blessing and, perhaps, we would also finally forget People Power, which, no matter how one looks at it, cannot be a democratic institution since it has to be in violation of whatever system of government we may have – whether presidential or parliamentary. Of course, as Gokongwei points out, in a parliamentary system, there is really no need for People Power or revolution since we would be able to change our head of government by a simple majority vote of parliament.

Mr. John points out that the parliamentary system in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Japan is working well, thank you. In contrast, "I think we’re the only country that followed the American system," said Gokongwei.

Tell that to the Thais, Ducky.